The Republican journal., 1887-12-01
A Waldo County Man in California.

We are permitted to make the following cx-
tracts from private letter, under date Of Los
Angeles, Cal, Nov. /, from Prof. \. A. Drury
to a friend in Portland. Prof. Drury, we are
sorry to say. was laid up with rheumatism at
the time he wrote, and consequently feeling
somewhat blue and discouraged. He says
In regard to real estate they say it is rather
quiet just now, but are all talking of the great
boom that Is to come; and they say it will sure
y come, and the talk is that it will be the boom
of all booms, and if you should come here and
see the real estate Offices YOU would realize
why this is SO. 1t is said that pent up forces
must have 4 vent. and all seems working with
the end in view to boom. Whether YOU will
be on hand when the curtain rises on the first
mishcs are made steadily, but the rushing
boom they talk about is not here just now.
Since l wrote YOU last | have travelled through
some of the many 'Paper towns - they are
called. Town sites are laid out. water pipod
to every lot cement sidewalks built. and many
other improvements Hotels are going up
yes. and cottage and houses being built. | tell
ton of this country, lts climate, SO superior to
Florida or any part of the South, | would say
what bubble. But when | think that when
fearful gales strcw our Atlantic coast with
wrecks entailin@ fearful loss of property and
life; when the entire north Is envclopcd in
snow and icy shrouds, and fearful blizzarls
sweep our land, stopping transportation and
| tryintr n our STRENGTH and p,jIur9pra. Ivbar
our southern country is sought with feelings of
fear from the result Of maarial poison, with
nothing wild, grand, or romantic to greet the
eye in changing scenes, romantic sights. Or tow
erin. peaks where, while winter holds all in its
icy grasp. as l have said, here all those bcar;-
ties exist and will remain forever. Here tie
orange and lemon hang ripcning on the trees
during that season, while the air is fragrant
v ith the bloom of roses, cultivated and wild,
aud the blossoms Of the orange and lemon
commingc with the ripenny fruits. The trees
are ever green and.bcautful, with plenty of
pure mountain water. and nil the luNurivs #
the temperate zones as we'll as the tropical.
With all that, still add the fowls of the air, fish
Of the sea. and game of the mountains, and |
=
love of beauty, desire to display and enjoy that
is manifested in the elements that here com
min-le, | cannot see but what the future of
California is grand success, and paper towns
are surely living realities.
l have visited Monrovia. | have looked 1t
all over. Not two years since it was laid out
1t started with $500 and $500 for the choicest
lots; those lots to-day are going for from $4,000
to $1,000. | asked how many times the
town had been bought and sold since 1t started
and they told ne that probably not less than
twenty five times. Yet there are beautiful
granite and brick blocks, as we'll as handsome
houses, finished and furnished worthy of the
tastes OF Lords and Dukes. Go there to-day
and you will find them building and rushed
with work. Ask them what is to support them
and they will tell you the wealth that settles
there. They want no manufactures nor the
population that such would bring. Other
places are the same. Well, let us look at our
own State of Maine. What has made Mt. De-
scrt what it is: Only the wealth that has col
lectcd there from our metropolitan centres.
What made Florida what it is. Some merits and
certainly many disadvantages in climate and
water; but here all is different and they are
coming, coming, coming from every State in
the Union; from drouth stricken Texas, also
from the 10000 square miles west of Chicago
where the drouth has ruined the crops, and
from the east west, north and SOUTH to find a
chance to escape the fearful incemcncieS, to
live where those fierce storms do not rage,
where the productions are well controlled by
ingenuity and art in many things, and the
desire Of thousands is to possess. to have and
to hold estate and here remain.
Such do | see that stands a witness to the
success of Southern California, to boom it now
and sustain 1t in the future, and | will repeat
what perhaps l have said before, that none
dare to predict what twenty years will bring
forth In combined wealth, and respondent
grandeur wrought and supported. There will
probably be a set back, in the bursting of a
boom, for you know there is limit, and
many, very many, arc carrying all they can lug
and there will be shock when some will have
to go by the board, but that will only be to put
business on a more solid basis and the merits
of the land, in all its advantages, will shine as
bright as before. Very truly yours,
ANnPrVr A DpI,p<